Over the last 36 months Blume Distillation LLC has achieved numerous important growth and development milestones.
In 2009 Blume Distillation:
• Founded and organized the Company
• Developed business and financial models
• Engaged Stoel Rives LLP as legal counsel.
In 2010 Blume Distillation:
Funding/Outreach
• Commenced private placement offering for Class A Units
• Raised $750,000 from accredited investors
• Hosted five alcohol fuel workshops (attracting hundreds of interested prospective customers for qualification and follow-up)
• Conducted a successful fundraising event hosted by actress Daryl Hannah at her ranch in Malibu, CA
• Presented at key industry tradeshows including talks at the Bio World Conference and National Farmer Union, and David Blume keynote speech at the American Corn Growers Conference
• Hosted International Small-Scale Ethanol Production Congress in Atlanta, GA, attended by representatives from 12 countries on three continents.
Marketing/Sales
• Identified and contacted important future sales connections in key target market sectors
• Entered into discussions with Project GAIA on developing world system placement in conjunction with alcohol cookstove projects.
David Blume Media Outreach
• In 2010, actress/activist and Unit holder Daryl Hannah and chief technology officer David Blume used Hannah’s 1979 Pontiac Trans-Am, from the movie Kill Bill, for emission tests in Sacramento, CA, in support of the EPA’s decision to authorize E15.
• The test results indicated that the addition of ethanol reduces emissions and that ethanol is safe to use in older cars. Nationally televised press conference, radio and media interviews reached millions of people across the U.S. and globally.
In 2011 Blume Distillation:
Funding/Outreach
• Raised additional $1 million
• Delivered keynote speech at Sweet Sorghum Ethanol Association Conference
• Participated in United Nations Clean Energy Conference
• Presented energy independence and earthquake recovery solution for Haiti at SImACT headquarters
• Attended meetings in New York with Ambassadors from Haiti and Madagascar and the United Nations Renewable Energy Team
• Developed specifications for United Nations Development Programme Africa small-scale ethanol project
• Hosted more than 50 conference call presentations and investor meetings
• Hired Central American sales representative
• Attended the Partnership for Clean Indoor Air biannual conference in Lima, Peru
• David Blume print appearances featured articles in CNN, Huffington Post and BioFuels Journal.
Development
• Hired internal office and research staff
• Entered into first engineering contract
• Identified major research partners
• Initiated advanced distillation patent licensing negotiations
• Visited prototype and production manufacturing facilities
• Explored cellulosic technology development agreement.
Marketing/Sales
• Processed first customer pre-sales order registrations.
• Participated in Flex Fuel market development demonstration project with Ford Motors Truck division
• System implementation and alternative fuel production proposal presentation, Managua, Nicaragua
• Met with Ministries of Agriculture, Energy and Mining in Lima, Peru
• Delivered presentation to Amazon indigenous farmer community in Iquitos, Peru
• Presented Waste to Fuel proposal to DPW, City Council and Department of Parks and Recreation in Hannibal, MO, and the Mayor and City Council in Clarksville, MO.
David Blume Media Outreach
• In 2011, David Blume’s media appearances reached an audience of over 180 million.
• During 2011, Mr. Blume was featured in hundreds of media interviews on networks including: ClearChannel, Independent Radio, American Radio, Premier Radio (home of George Noory’s Coast to Coast AM program, the second-highest audience rating in U.S. radio), GCN, National Public Radio and Web radio.
• Mr. Blume appeared in articles from CNN, Huffington Post and BioFuels Journal, and his interviews generated hundreds of thousands of Web hits from people all around the world.
In 2012 Blume Distillation:
Facility
• Site search for hardware testing and demonstration facility
• David Blume enters escrow for 14-acre facility in Santa Cruz County, CA
• Office renovation and move into new facility
• Opened new facility with industrial buildings and 250,000 square feet of greenhouse space suitable for use as a research and development center, hardware system testing, customer site visits and demonstration.
Development
• Completed Advanced Distillation intellectual property license and initial research contract for Blume-specific application of the technology
• Hardware Development: Hired lead engineer and Midwest-based development team
• Began multi-function fermentation vessel design
• Visited numerous U.S.- based potential fabrication partners
• Completed competitive bid process for prototype development manufacturer, selected manufacturing partner and began assembly of key subsystems
• Identified vendors for important off-the-shelf system components
• Entered into contract with advanced reactor developer and related personnel
• Entered into contract with thermal engineer for development of Superheated Steam Boiler
• Hired scientist for development of fermentation and fungal environmental control technologies
• Executed nondisclosure agreement with U.S.-based microorganism library holder
• Initiated negotiations for cellulosic technology licenses
• Identified protein separation engineering team.
Technology/Intellectual Property Portfolio
• Identified at least 15 innovations that the Company believes are patentable or subject to proprietary/trade secret rights:
º ºControlled Yeast Environment: novel method and device for managing yeast recycling
º ºHigh-Speed Fermentation: mechanical process to facilitate fermentation, reducing fermentation time to hours instead of days; reduces amount of equipment required per unit of output
º ºModular Fermentation: use multiple types of yeast to address individual feedstock requirements; allows for cellulosic material handling without equipment redesign
º ºNatural Microorganism Research: not mechanical fermentation; uses non-GMO microorganisms for enhanced biorefining ability (trade secret)
º ºEnzyme-Producing Organism Research: feedstock pretreatment for cellulosic alcohol production. Significant reduction of input costs (trade secret)
º ºSemi-Continuous Reactor: more efficient pretreatment
º ºRapid Batch Reactor: eliminates costly components, reduces energy requirements
º ºSuperheated Steam Boiler: operates at higher-than-standard temperatures to speed reactions, aid in cellulosic pretreatment, lower cost manufacturing
º ºBlume Multi-Function Fermenter: Changes Blume systems from simply being alcohol plants into biorefineries able to make a number of useful and profitable products from inputs
º ºControlled Fungal Environment: Method for managing the interface between fungi and feedstock
º ºProtein Separation System: for production of animal feed, human food and amino acids
º ºFeedstock Research: Cattail, Coffee Pulp, Apple Pulp
• Intellectual Property Licensing: 6 innovation areas
º ºAlternate Method of Distillation: Reduces energy requirement for the production of anhydrous ethanol. Simplifies control system, eliminates or reduces the size of components (exclusive).
º ºCombination Herbicide/Fertilizer Co-Product: ability to produce a valuable co-product from certain feedstocks
º ºNovel Solvent Cellulose Pretreatment (tested at 400,000 GPY for four years)
º ºNon-Organic Solvent Cellulose Pretreatment: production of cleaner fermentable sugars without yeast-inhibiting toxic by-products of acid hydrolysis systems
º ºSpecialty Chemical Fermentation (for yielding various green chemical co-products)
º ºCarbohydrate-Based Surfactants: production inside fermentation vessel, new blending capabilities.
Funding/Outreach
• Closed private placement offering for Class A Units in July at $2.2 million total
• Grew investor community to 24 individuals
• Earned Global Impact Investing Rating system (GIIRs.org) certification for social and environmental impact
• Gave presentations with Leopard Capital, NY, and Merrill Lynch, NY
• Entered into agreement with Mission Markets, New York, to be listed on their sustainable capitalism platform
• Met with representatives of Export-Import Bank of the U.S., Overseas Private Investment Corp (OPIC) and Inter-American Development Bank (IADB)
Marketing/Sales
• Received 189 qualified pre-sales interest registrations in Agricultural, Industrial, Small-Business, and Municipal markets in the U.S. and Canada
• Hired sales representative for the Mexico, Central American and Caribbean region
• Executed MOU for half-million-dollar system purchase with University of Michoacán, Morelia, Mexico
• Presented significant multi-phase project proposal to the largest energy company in Nicaragua
• Met with Honduran Ambassador and government officials at Latin American Energy Organization (OLADE), Mexico
• Site consultation visit and proposal for waste-to-fuel project, Davao, Philippines
• Full proposal in process with S. Martinelli & Company, leading American producer of sparkling apple juice in Watsonville, CA.
• Met with government and private industry decision makers in agriculture and energy throughout Latin America.
David Blume Media Outreach
• Conference presentations in 2012: Alternative Fuel Expo, Madison, WI, Health and Freedom Expo, Chicago, IL, OLADE Renewable Energy Expo, Mexico City, Mexico.
• Radio Appearances: In 2012, David Blume’s media appearances reached an audience of over 140 million people globally. Mr. Blume was a featured guest on Coast to Coast AM eight times in 2012, (Coast to Coast AM airs on more than 560 radio stations, and reaches an audience of more than 3 million listeners nightly). Mr. Blume was also a featured guest on Pacifica Radio Network’s KPFA, Oregon Public Radio, WBGZ Public Radio Chicago, Farm Talk Radio, and Cable Access TV, including the award-winning Santa Cruz-based EcoReview.
Actress/Activist Daryl Hannah and CTO David Blume
David Blume and Ryan Sarnataro meet with the
Ministry of Agriculture, Lima, Peru